10 Worst WWE Pay-Per-Views Ever
Let's all be thankful that, in the Network era, terrible PPVs only cost 9.99 a month...
June 27 has the distinction of being the day that not one, but two, of the worst WWE pay-per-views ever took place.
The first was the 1999 King of the Ring, a show that arrived during the promotion's Attitude Era peak, with the Monday Night War having fully swung in their favour as they set ratings records, sold out arenas and made untold amounts of cash as fans ate up their spandex-clad brand of crash TV.
The '99 King of the Ring tournament was, simply put, a very bad one.
The tournament matches were all rushed, many of them overbooked for the short time they existed and the winner, Billy Gunn, widely derided as the wrong choice and one of the worst kings ever.
King Ass. Says it all, doesn't it?
In non-tournament matches, The Rock and The Undertaker had a predictably chaotic but ultimately hollow WWE Title match, while Steve Austin met Vince and Shane McMahon in a barmy Handicap Ladder Match with storyline control of the company on the line.
Exactly five years later, a depleted SmackDown crew presented The Great American Bash.
Outside of Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio having compelling WWE and Cruiserweight Title defences (against JBL and Chavo Guerrero respectively), there was absolutely nothing worth paying for on the card.
The likes of Luther Reigns, Mordecai and Kenzo Suzuki highlighted how desperate the talent situation was, but the main event was another level of insulting nonsense, as The Undertaker saw off the Dudleys in the disastrous Concrete Crypt headliner, after which he buried Paul Bearer in cement.
You know. Murdering him.
So, with those two abysmal shows in mind, here are ten of the other worst WWE pay-per-views ever.
I can just practically hear you firing up the WWE Network as you read this...
10. In Your House IV: Great White North
The In Your House pay-per-view concept, where WWE would offer a cheaper, two-hour order only event in months where there wasn't one of the established longer and more expensive pay-per-views, yielded a few gems between 1995 and 1999.
The fourth In Your House event, retroactively titled Great White North, is not one of them.
Exposing WWE's roster depth and creative issues at the time, the show offered zilch to celebrate outside of a decent Tag Team Title match between the Smoking Gunns and the team of Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid.
Speaking of the Kliq, watching Great White North it was apparent just how much they were pulling the strings behind the scenes, particularly with the Intercontinental Title situation.
Shawn Michaels was due to defend the championship against Dean Douglas, but got beaten up by some marines on a night out in Syracuse not too long before and was, apparently, in no condition to perform and put over ECW's former Franchise.
So he forfeited it instead, with Ramon coming out and pulling double duty in order to put the title back in the Kliq camp immediately. Not only did the switch leave a bad taste in the mouth, the match was rotten, too.
In the show's main event, the British Bulldog beat WWE Champion Diesel by disqualification in a match so bad that Davey Boy and his manager Jim Cornette apologised to Vince McMahon afterwards for simply being involved in it.
In other lowlights, Goldust made his much anticipated WWE debut after an age of vignettes hyping his arrival and, regrettably, proceeded to bore everyone to tears in his lifeless bout with Marty Jannetty.
Yokozuna's super-heavyweight clash with King Mabel was designed to be an 'attraction', but it was painful for the five minutes it lasted and ended in an unsatisfactory double countout. Even Vince McMahon, calling the action on commentary, made reference to it's less-than-stellar quality.
And in the opener, Hunter Hearts Helmsley beat Fatu in an alright match, I guess.
Small mercies.
Written by Lewis Howse
Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.